Thanksgiving Part One: The 'Burg

We headed to Hattiesburg yesterday to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. We stuffed ourselves silly on baked and fried turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, sweet potato casserole and blueberry cobbler. Here's a few pics from the day. Derek and my dad frying the turkey in the rain...

Derek had the tough job of carving both turkeys once they were done. But what a great job he did!

The food was delish, and we were fat and happy for our drive back to Jackson. It's never fun to travel on the actual holiday, but I was glad to see we weren't the only ones on the road at all. When we got home, we had lazy time on the couch in our pajamas while finishing off the last bit of blueberry cobbler. Yum... We've still got plenty of other leftovers that we'll snack on for the next few days. That's the best part about Thanksgiving!

I can't neglect to mention that yesterday's travels were made a bit tougher thanks to our Thanksgiving Eve night out with friends Wednesday night. Here's a few pics. Clearly we were very THANKFUL to be off work for a few days. :)



It's a good thing this holiday only comes once a year... or actually in our case twice since we head to Vicksburg tomorrow for "Thanksgiving Part Two: The Other 'Burg." Happy shopping and Christmas decorating today, y'all! :)

Holidayitis

I really don’t want to be at work this week. It’s not like I don’t have plenty to do – I do, but I just don’t want to do any of it. I’d rather be at home in my cozy pajamas sipping hot chocolate and watching Christmas movies. I am very glad I’m off work on Friday though. This is the second year Derek and I both have the day after Thanksgiving off, and it’s been so nice! Working at a newspaper and at a bank didn’t really afford many long holiday breaks, so I won’t complain.

I wanted to take a few minutes to really get in the holiday spirit and share my thoughts this Thanksgiving Eve Eve. Overall, I’m in a good place in life right now, and for that I’m very thankful. I’m thankful that I have a wonderful husband who loves me to the moon and back, even on my worst days. I’m thankful that I have a generous and loving family and an abundance of good friends, even though many of whom I wish lived closer. At least they’re a quick phone call or e-mail away.

I’m thankful to have a roof over my head and a steady job in this unstable economy. I’m thankful that I’m not the one in charge of the country. We can all fuss about what should or shouldn’t be done by any president, but we’re not the ones put in that position to make those tough calls. I’m thankful for our troops and for veterans who have served our country in years past. I’m thankful that my husband is here at home and not spending the holidays in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I’m thankful I’ve been fortunate enough to know my grandparents and hear their stories. I’m thankful that my parents have a strong marriage and have stayed together for more than 30 years. I’m thankful for my pets who show me unconditional love every day. I’m thankful for good health and happiness, and I look forward to what the future brings. And I’m thankful I started this blog so I can write about whatever comes to mind, even if it's boring or random or not worth reading at all. :)

I hope the work week passes quickly for those of us who have to work, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! The diet starts Monday. :)

It's good to go back

Saturday I went to Vicksburg for a baby shower for my friend Melanie and to do some Christmas shopping downtown. The shower was a total success, and Mel and baby Will got lots of great goodies. Too bad I forgot my camera... sorry.

After the shower I stopped by my friends Kathleen and Daniel's house for a short visit. Their daughter Linley was born about a week after we got married, so I always associate her age with the "age" of our marriage. It's hard to believe that this little girl will be three in March! Where in the world does the time go?

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in downtown Vicksburg. That is by far one of my favorite places to be during the holidays. It's like traveling back in time as you walk down the bricks on Washington Street from shop to shop. Christmas music is piped through speakers on the lamp posts, and you leave your gift at one store being wrapped while you venture on to the next store. It's easy to knock out the majority of your Christmas shopping in just a few hours there. Last year after The Great Tree Disaster of 2007 (that's a separate story, trust me), I drove to Vicksburg to do my day-after-Christmas shopping downtown. I just love it, and that's probably one of the biggest things I miss about living there.

Luckily I'm only a 45-minute drive away. And now that I don't live five minutes from Washington Street, it makes it that much more special to go back and visit. And shop. Can't forget the shopping. :)

TGI...T?

I’m glad this weekend is winding down. It seems like we’ve had a busy few days. Tuesday night we went to Pan Asia with some of Derek’s friends from work and drank entirely too much sake. I think it was only the second time I’ve ever had sake, and I don’t really think I’ll drink it again. It made my Wednesday pretty rough indeed. Ugh… I went to bed at 8:30 last night.

Tonight we have plans to go to Fondren Unwrapped, which is like a holiday open house of all the businesses and shops in Fondren. They have music, food and drinks, so it should be an enjoyable evening out. We’ll probably stop in at Que Sera for a glass of wine around their fire pit to celebrate the fact that tomorrow is Friday.

I’m only working a half day tomorrow so I can go run some errands and start on my Christmas shopping at the HandWorks Arts and Crafts Festival. I bought our wreath there last year and LOVED it. Saturday I’m heading to Vicksburg for Melanie’s baby shower and to do some visiting with some old friends. That’s about all that’s on tap for the weekend, and I’m glad! We have definitely been on the go here lately, and there’s no end in sight until January. Is it a bad thing to feel like you need to rest up before the holidays even get here? :)

Lingerie and the Log Cabin

Saturday afternoon I packed up the car and headed about 30 miles south to D’Lo, Mississippi. My friend Ashley is getting married in two weeks, and she wanted to rent a cabin on the Strong River for her bachelorette party. I was definitely in favor of the idea of a night in rather than out since it probably saved me about $100 in cover charges, overpriced drinks and a hotel room.

Well, when we got to the cabin around dusk there was no electricity. Not cool … I felt like it we were straight out of a horror movie and the psycho killer was lurking at the edge of the woods. Plus it was freezing. Christy and Ashley (reliving their Girl Scout glory days) started a fire, and we huddled around it to keep warm for a couple of hours until the Entergy truck arrived to fix the power line. He saved the day. And the party. :)

We had Ashley’s lingerie shower inside and sat around the bonfire for most of the night. I brought my electronic Catch Phrase game that I got for my birthday, and the more we drank, more it entertained us. We almost dropped it in the fire only once, but it made it through the night safe and sound. It was a great bachelorette party. The party started winding down about 2:30, and we all retreated to our bunk beds.

Derek and I can't make it to Ashley's wedding because it's Thanksgiving weekend, but it was great to say goodbye to her single days in style with a girls' night at a cabin in the woods. :)

Third Annual Thanksgiving with Friends

Last night we had our third annual Girls' Night/Boys' Night Thanksgiving dinner at Melanie and Trey's house. This little tradition started at Katie and Neil's house in 2006, and moved to Meredith and Josh's house last year. Our group has grown since the beginning with the birth of Jane Reynolds (she spent last night at her grandma's house) last year, and next year we'll be including Baby Field #2 AND Baby Smith. It's always good to visit with friends and eat WAY too much great food. We had a blast and can't wait to see how our little annual tradition continues to grow through the years. It took forever to organize this group picture, so enjoy! :)

Iron Chef Jackson

Pardon my absence... I meant to write about this earlier in the week, but I've been in a Nyquil-induced coma for two days with the crud. Yes, the seasonal grunge made a visit to our house this week and knocked me on my butt for about 48 hours straight. Now poor Derek has it, so hopefully he'll start feeling better soon. I have a feeling the germs might have come from our weekend adventures in Katherine's kitchen... read ahead to see where I'm going with this.

Sunday night we were treated to a very special meal at Katherine’s house. Our friend Jason just moved back to Mississippi after spending a few years in South Carolina, where he was working at the Ritz Carlton as a chef. He’s working at Walker’s Drive-In in Fondren now, and we convinced him to cook for us on his only day off. But bless his heart, he should win some kind of food network competition. It was THAT good.

We requested seafood bisque since soups really are his specialty. Well, he and Katherine went on a scavenger hunt all over Jackson trying to find all the ingredients. I think they succeeded in finding everything but vermouth or brandy, even after an attempt at ordering it from a bar and sneaking it into Katherine’s purse in a Ziploc bag. Finally, about four hours later, five live lobsters and a small fortune’s worth of other fresh ingredients were ready to be transformed into some tasty lobster bisque. When I say he made everything from scratch, I’m not exaggerating. I may butcher this process, but I’ll try my best to give a decent play-by-play.

First the lobsters were roasted in the oven, and then he made the lobster stock (like chicken broth or chicken stock) from a bunch of vegetables, white wine, sherry, spices, tomato paste and shells that were basically stewed together.

After scraping the impurities off the top of the stew (as John is demonstrating in the photo above), he drained the stock and then added more water to cook and drain it again in order to capture the flavor and produce as much stock as possible. After he was satisfied with the right amount of pure stock, he added heavy cream to give it a thicker consistency. Once the lobster meat was sautéed in butter and spices, it was time to serve up the bisque. This may sound like a fairly simple project, but the whole process took about 4 hours of straight cooking time.

Through the entire cooking demonstration, all four of us "students" - Katherine, Derek, John and I - shared the same tasting spoon. What were we thinking? Especially after Katherine was talking about how everyone at her office had been sick last week. Needless to say I think we've all shared in the joys of the crud this week.

In the end, the lobster bisque was like heaven in my mouth. Derek made some jalapeno cornbread to go along with it, and it was honestly one of the best meals I’ve had in a very long time. I now have a new appreciation for any kind of bisque served at a restaurant. I know there’s an easier way to make it, but this was the “from scratch” way, and we were very impressed. We are happy to welcome Chef Jason to Jackson (and to our about-to-be-formed supper club)! Next time we just won't share the same spoon. :)

Two celebrations for the price of one

Saturday we headed to Vicksburg to celebrate my brother-in-law’s 25th birthday and Derek’s grandmother’s 70th birthday. We started with a nice dinner out at Tony’s where Ryan blew out the candles on the delicious red velvet cake my mother-in-law made from scratch, and then the party really got started at the American Legion VFW Post on Washington Street for Mamaw’s get-together.

Our favorite good-time band from the lake, Magnolias and Moonshine, was playing, and in honor of Veteran’s Day tomorrow, they were of course sporting their red, white and blue! Check out this picture of the band on stage. They look especially festive with the big bingo board in the background.


Here’s a pic of the birthday girl dancing with her son. You couldn’t pry her off the dance floor. She was boogieing to nearly every song, and she danced with all her grandsons who could barely keep up. :)

We had our own table and entertained ourselves with beer, bourbon, wine and some of Mamaw’s “Colorado Kool-aid” (whoop juice for adults). Door prizes were given at several points during the night, and Derek and I won a free tour of Duff Green Mansion B&B. Lucky for us, we’ve already taken a personal tour with the owner himself, which included a few glasses of wine on the second floor veranda. Maybe we can trade the tour certificate in towards a night’s stay there with the ghosts. :)

Before we left the American Legion to head to The Beechwood (enough said), I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this sign. This pretty much sums up the whole night…

Happy Monday, everybody!

Any pet owner's prayer

A friend of mine at work has a precious little kitten that probably won’t live through the weekend. He was a feral they found outside Keifer’s in downtown Jackson and brought home a few months ago. He’s only about three months old now, and she took him in to the vet yesterday afternoon because he was having trouble breathing. The diagnosis was that he has fluid built up around his lungs, which has caused his lung capacity to deplete to about 10 percent. His heart is now enlarged because of all the effort.

The vet drained the fluid but said there’s not really anything they can do to make the kitten better. They’re just making him more comfortable. Bless his heart. Bless Margaret’s heart. She and her husband never had children, but they have a 12-year-old cat that was just getting used to the idea of having a little buddy to tag along. They thought adding a new pet to the mix would help the eventual transition of losing the older one.

For those of you who are animal lovers out there, please keep Margaret and baby Tux in your prayers. As you can see above, he’s a precious little cross-eyed kitten who was just getting used to life inside a house and away from a dumpster. It’s hard to lose a pet no matter their age. My heart goes out to her. I’m sure this weekend will be a very long one for her.

Dinner with an old friend

Last night I met my friend Meredith for dinner and drinks at Soulshine Pizza. The food and drinks were good, but the company was great! We’ve both had a lot going on the past few months, so it’s been hard to figure out a time to get together for a visit. So when we finally were able to sit and catch up last night, we were so busy chatting that the waitress gave up on us and told us to just let her know when we were ready to order.

The picture above is from her wedding in June 2007. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year and a half since then! Time is flying … yet one more reason to enjoy the time we have to visit with old friends. Let’s do it again soon, Mere! Love you!

I did my duty

I just got back from voting a little while ago. We actually got an hour of paid leave to go vote today. I guess that’s a benefit of working for the state! Amazingly, I was in and out of there in less than 10 minutes, despite all the horror stories I’ve heard all morning. The only hiccup I had was the little old lady manning the registration table who tried to let me vote as “GRAY, ELLEN A.” Poor lady… she couldn’t hear or spell apparently. Well, lucky for Ms. Ellen A. Gray, I saw her mistake and corrected it before she could do any permanent damage. That’s precisely why you should HAVE to show a photo I.D. before you can vote. I can’t believe you can just tell them your name – or anybody’s name for that matter – and cast your one and only vote.

The picture above is from a co-worker’s precinct in Rankin County at 6:45 this morning. The sad thing is, EVERY election should bring this many people to the polls. In this election, we’ll make history either way, but you shouldn’t just wait for a historic election to vote. It’s a privilege that we should never take for granted. As for the results this time around, I’ve never been one to put a sign in my yard or a bumper sticker on my car. To each their own when it comes to politics and religion… but since this is my blog, I will say I hope we wake up tomorrow with a war veteran and a hockey mom on their way to D.C.

I’m off my soapbox now. My only complaint this election day is that my precinct had apparently run out of the free-Chik-Fil-A-sandwich-for-casting-your-ballot coupons. Oh, well… maybe next time. Happy voting! :)

Halloween and Homecoming

What a busy weekend! Friday we decided at the last minute that we would dress up and go out for Halloween after all. We had planned earlier in the week to just stay home and watch a marathon of Derek's favorite slasher movies, but the weather was so nice we couldn't pass up a night out. And it's not very often that Halloween actually falls on a Friday, so it was a great way to end the work week.

Derek borrowed a few costumes from a co-worker for both of us, but he ended up choosing Popeye, a costume he bought last year but never wore. I was a go-go girl, which came with a long black wig that I had so much fun with! It kind of makes me want to grow my hair long and dye it black. Well, not really, but it was definitely fun for a night. We headed downtown with Ben and Tina for the first annual Blocktober party on Congress Street. It was set up where Jacktoberfest was in front of the capitol and beside the governor's mansion, and it was totally free and BYOB. They had a band and some pretty cute decorations, including orange Christmas lights in the trees and hay bales for everyone to sit on. We saw some pretty funny costumes, including a pregnant cheerleader, Posh and David Beckham (this girl acted just like her, too), the Karate Kid and the Dukes of Hazzard. After we left downtown, we stopped at a friend's house in Fondren for another party and then capped the night off with a visit to Krystal for dinner at midnight. Here's a pic of us with Ben and Tina. He was a hockey player, and she was Hannah Montana.

Yesterday we packed up and went to Hattiesburg for USM's homecoming. My friend Christy set up a tent, and we had a pretty good array of food, including some frosted Jack-o-lantern cookies from Anderson's Bakery in Pascagoula. Yummm... my favorite. We saw a lot of old friends and enjoyed the beautiful weather in our black and gold.

I love going to homecoming, and we had a blast just like I knew we would. I will say the girls in school there now looked more like they were going to tailgate in the Grove in Oxford than the District in Hattiesburg. I have never seen so many stilettos and semi-formals at Southern before. I guess the times they are a changing, that's for sure. Here's a pic of us oldies but goodies. :)

We hit the road about 9 this morning to come home, and I fought the crowds at the grocery store this afternoon. NOT fun, but at least now we actually have some food in this house. I'm getting ready to cook a meatloaf with some cheesy green beans, homemade smashed potatoes and jalapeno cornbread. I think some good home cooking is just what we need to wrap up this wonderful weekend. It's just a shame that Monday's only one good night's sleep away. At least we gained an hour today. I don't think I could have managed losing an hour on a crazy weekend like this. :)